On His Success Story
There are not too many intellectuals in the country today who do not know Professor Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu. He graduated from Harvard University as the best student out of 150 students drawn from across the world. Dr. Ibe Kachikwu also set a record at the Harvard University as the first student to complete his Doctorate degree in 15 months. He is a hugely respected and accomplished gentleman who is renowned for his brilliance and intelligence. He is an academic scholar of high repute. Before he became known as a Professor, he was more commonly known as Dr. Ibe Kachikwu. Only some years ago, he was an Executive Director at ExxonMobil. He was also a businessman who had his tentacles spread across Oil & Gas, Real estate, publishing and hospitality. He was the Group Manager of NNPC in 2016. Ibe Kachikwu was the Minister of State for Petroleum from 2015 right through to 2019. He says proudly:
“I was lucky to be president of OPEC in 2016. I was president of GECF which is the Gas Association of the World in 2016 and of course, president of African Petroleum Resources Organization, which was the Council of Oil Ministers in Africa from 2017 to 2019. Today, I am a Professor of Law. I have since retired to consult and to be a professor of Law around various universities in the world.”
In 1989, Kachikwu went into romance journalism, a genre that explores romantic tales and relationship issues across the country. This was done through the unveil of Hints magazine, a weekly publication by his media enterprise, True Tales Publications Limited. Kachikwu readily connected to a wide audience via his weekly column, ‘Fatherhood with Ibe,’ where he shared with his readers his experiences as a father.[4] In 2013, Kachikwu’s True Tales Publications Limited launched ‘Hello Nigeria,’ a lifestyle magazine.[5] The maiden edition of the magazine featured icons in music, film, fashion, culture and style, drawn from Nigeria and Ghana.
Few weeks ago, Professor Ibe Kachikwu was Special Guest of honour at the 60th birthday celebration of Archbishop Designate Isaac Idahosa held at the Sheraton hotel, Ikeja, Lagos. He was one of the few dignitories called upon to say a few words about the celebrant. Below is his tribute:
Archbishop Isaac Idahosa is one of the fastest growing firebrand pastors in Nigeria that has a leadership etiquette to lead this generation of young ministers of God. He’s somebody you really can’t verbally put in perspective. He’s almost an enigma. I met him about a year and a half ago when I had a family issue that required his spiritual intervention .He was referred by somebody who was very close to the family. Since then, we have fairly speedily become not just friends but brothers and family. And that’s because I doubt if there’s anybody Bishop Isaac meets who doesn’t turn out to become a family. He has a way of getting to you and making you feel comfortable, advising you rightly and honestly. He’s a very selfless individual. Most times, he’s talking about Nigerian issues. It’s how to make this country better. It’s how to make people progress. It’s how to support people. And why I say he is an enigma is because most times when you see people in the spiritual realm, they’re very cast in the spiritual light, right and wrong.
He’s not a judgmental person. He guides you towards the righteous path. So he doesn’t expect you to come already clean and shining. He hopes he cleans you up from the dirt that you bring into the spiritual form. But over and above that, it’s all encompassing because it’s not just spiritualism. He’s somebody who gets interested in your family, gets interested in your person, looks at national issues, looks at career issues. I recently was happy to know that every year, really, from the little offerings that he has, he sends out cheques to people in the church to encourage them in their businesses. He sows seeds of planting for progress and all that stuff. So he’s a very unique person. Most spiritual people take and keep everythinh to themselves. But he collects and he just distributes. So he’s a very wonderful person. On this occasion of his 60th birthday, I think it’s just the beginning, to be honest. He’s 60 but looking 40. I think he probably has 50, 60 more years to go to God with him.
And he has a huge amount of skill, talent, and energy. And his service to this country is phenomenal. I like to see his church grow in dimensions, not just in terms of the mortals and Greeks, but also in terms of his multitude. If you’ve ever been to his church, I’ve seen the energy that he pulsates on top of the dais. It’s amazing. And when on one or two occasions he invites me to the church, even when I get there, the place is trembling. So the spirituality is felt. And there are very, very few people in this world who are gifted the way he is. I wish him long life. I wish him success. I wish him progress. I wish God to basically cradle him to the point of spiritual growth and personal growth that this country requires and that he requires. I wish his family well and thank God for giving him to us. It’s a very selfless gift
I still recall that our first meeting was an accident of destiny. My wife was ill, and I said to somebody who was very close to me, who can I get to intercede for my wife, and I showed him what we were doing medically. I had of course exhausted my repertoire of goodwill from Pastor Ituah, who had also done the same thing for my daughter. So I had to go somewhere else. And so I met, I was introduced to, Bishop Isaac Idahosa and then he came to the house, and we talked for a very long time. The thing that surprised me, when he walked into my sitting room the first morning, I was going to ask him, where is the Bishop? Because he came in a very casual dress, walked in by himself, and then I offered him a seat. And so when we sat, it was very businesslike. But from that moment, we navigated our relationship to the point where we ended up in my bed room and sat down and did some very serious work. And from that day to this day, we remain very, very close.
There’s something about him that’s very infectious. He’s simple, but he’s very focused. He’s one person who was able to explain to me why men of God are going into politics. I always found that very intriguing, and very confusing.And I always said to myself, why don’t you just stick to religion? Why do you always have to go into politics? Because when I met him, I realized all the nuances that he had, all the peculiar qualities that he had, his people-oriented characteristics, and to understand that if you lock him up he’s not going to be able to do anything. When I was 10 years old, I used to play in a group. I liked to play around with the ball and enjoy myself and have a lot of fun. My father’s lesson to me then was you soon will have to leave the field of play and get into the field of seriousness, because it’s not going to take you anywhere. And when I was 20, I began to spend my energy trying to gather some academic laurels. And he said, that’s fantastic, you’re on the right track, but don’t begin to celebrate too quickly, what you have gathered is not enough to compete in the world of tomorrow.
And when I was 30, when I had to finish my doctorate, he said to me, in choosing your career, make sure you think of service to humanity. For a career without service to humanity is almost a useless thing. Your sense of career, your sense of mind is meant to do service. But when I was 40, and I had thought I had reached something I could call the peak of my career at the time, my father said the problem with you young people is that you celebrate success too early. You have to lift up both your shoulders and see what is happening in outer space. And when I was 50, I became fairly close to the attaining the top of executive leadership of Mobil corporation. And I was really happy to see that. I think finally, he said, well, good, you’re climbing up the ladder in the corporate sector, but look at the whole conglomerate and you will see that you have not really achieved much. So, you’ve got to begin to look past Exxon Mobil and look at corporate Nigeria. I am saying all these because those are the lessons that we need to teach young people. Sometimes as parents, we need to set goals for our children.
As you turn 60, let me say to you exactly what my father would’ve said, that 60 is just the beginning, and it is. You’ve done it, it’s just the beginning. Look to those greater heights that His Excellency has tried to put you to, and see what you can do with those, and you can aspire a lot more. Because 60 is only just the beginning of life, and on this day, I will congratulate you and admonish you, not just in terms of your good deeds, but in terms of your good, in terms of service to humanity. I congratulate you, and I wish you well. Thank you very much.
– WALE LAWAL
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